Poems

There is no controlling life.Try corralling a lightning bolt,containing a tornado. Dam astream and it will create a newchannel. Resist, and the tidewill sweep you off your feet.Allow, and grace will carryyou to higher ground. The onlysafety lies in letting it all in —the wild and the weak; fear,fantasies, failures and success.When loss rips off the doors ofthe heart, or sadness veils yourvision with despair, practicebecomes simply bearing the truth.In the choice to let go of yourknown way of being, the wholeworld is revealed to your new eyes.

I could not stop thinking about Lord Krishna’s message to Arjuna on equanimity in Bhagwad Gita while reading this poem by Kipling.

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.

One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm,Without looking for the traces I may have left;A cuckoo’s song beckons me to return home;Hearing this, I tilt my head to seeWho has told me to turn back;But do not ask me where I am going,As I travel in this limitless world,Where every step I take is my home.

Last weekend, I spent two hours amidst wilderness of the Butterfly Park in Chandigarh.

Watching these beautiful winged creatures hover around, rest on the flowers and then swiftly move to wherever their heart takes them was a truly meditative experience.

Here are some pictures from the visit:

At 10:00 AM, I was the only visitor in the park.

Walking along the nature trail in the park is almost like walking in the jungle. Butterflies prefer wilderness and the park offer a perfect environment to them. Host plants for butterflies are carefully selected to ensure that a wide range of butterflies can live here.

I sat on the edge of the trail facing the plants for 2 hours and made friends with some of the most beautiful and delicate creatures on the earth.

To really experience the beauty of life, one has to embrace silence. I did just that and soon became a part of their world.

I watched butterflies for about a couple of hours and I did not want to leave the place. For those two hours, my world had shrunk and all the worries and anxieties just melted when I saw these butterflies happily hovering around me.

To me, butterflies are a sign of hope, belief and life itself. They start their life painfully, struggle to emerge from their cocoon and then blossom. A short and fleeting life span does not deter them from adding so much beauty to the world.

The mountain and the squirrelHad a quarrel,And the former called the latter“Little prig.”Bun replied,“You are doubtless very big;But all sorts of things and weatherMust be taken in togetherTo make up a yearAnd a sphere.And I think it no disgraceTo occupy my place.If I’m not so large as you,You are not so small as I,And not half so spry:I’ll not deny you makeA very pretty squirrel track.Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;If I cannot carry forests on my back,Neither can you crack a nut.”

Listening to the “On Being” episode with one of the greatest living poets Mary Oliver truly made my day, especially the following poem.

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Swan and black bear represent the good and the bad. Grasshopper represents us, the indecisive human beings.

Life seems to be fleeting by and being present and mindful in the moment is perhaps the best gift we can give to ourselves.